Aibu to be massively panicking about a pup I bought yesterday? European passport

[Ohforgodsake000]

Very stupidly bought a dog yesterday who came with a pet passport issued in Latvia.
All vaccines were stamped in the book and micro chipping also in there.
Thought nothing Of it until I mentioned to a police friend who said this is one of the biggest scams going and he probably doesn't have any vaccines including rabies and threadworm which he could now transfer to my kids.
I feel sick with worry.
What a stupid idiot I am.
No vets will see him as he's not yet registered and its now emergencies only.

Laiste, I think you make some good points but if internet advertising of all animals were banned people who shouldn't have animals would still be able to obtain them. I imagine lots of dogs used criminally are picked up by word of mouth, although that is distinct from the commercial nature of puppy farming.

What I think we should focus on instead is tackling criminal activity and irresponsible ownership so that you can't just buy a dog (or any animal) on a whim (however you heard about it) and should be able to show competence and a suitable home first.

Advertising of animals is very broad too, as people have said horses are different but the overwhelming majority of horses are sold online. I also think there are too many horses being bred, but see that as different from internet advertising itself. I've realised I wasn't accurate in previous posts - only rehomed one cat but have bought and sold horses, most not online though as in those days horses were still advertised in horsey magazine classifieds! Mum has a horse now which we did see advertised on the yard's website.

I'd prefer to try and find a good home myself first if possible, so my dog didn't have to go from a family home to a kennel while waiting for possibly a long time to be rehomed, especially as I bet charities are under huge pressure. I don't know exactly what checks charities do (do they CRB check?) but I'd want to see the home before letting a beloved pet go there.

Just wanted to add that dogs being rehomed via rescue charities don't necessarily need to go into kennels first. We got our dog via a rescue charity but he was still living at home with his previous owners until we collected him. The rescue charity did all the vetting, home checks, matching etc but they didn't actually have the dog. The previous owners had tried to rehome him via gumtree but weren't happy with any of the people who replied to the ad, so they asked the rescue charity to arrange it for them.

That's interesting to know.

I know that the Dog's Trust and others often have a waiting list so it's good to know this is an option, and sounds like a good solution.

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but a dog with distemper was diagnosed recently having come on a Lorry from Eastern Europe. 100 other dogs/puppies were on the same Lorry and have been distributed to their new homes potentially all over the uk.
Make sure your dogs are up to date without vaccines people. And for goodness sake, don't include homeopathic nosodes in that.

* Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but a dog with distemper was diagnosed recently having come on a Lorry from Eastern Europe.*

Which part of Eastern Europe? It’s 1800km from the western border of Poland to the eastern border of Russia, FYI.

Which part of Eastern Europe? It’s 1800km from the western border of Poland to the eastern border of Russia, FYI.

It really doesn't matter, the OP's dog probably wasn't on that truck but a 100 others were and dogs don't have many degrees of separation. The first thing that any vet/dog trainer/experienced owner will tell you is that once a dog has its vaccinations,* it needs to be socialised.

(*Many will now advise doing this with large breed dogs before they are fully vaccinated, as they are more likely to be destroyed due to aggression stemming from a lack of socialisation, than illness.)

Dog socialisation is like a real life game of Guess Who? You go out and find men with hats, people of different ethnicities, people using various mobility aids and as many dogs as you can find, while the puppy is still in its socialisation window.

Dog have no reticence about getting up close and personal with each other and viruses spread like wildfire. When I lived in Surrey and used the local park, we had an outbreak of infectious red eye and the local vet became so overwhelmed, that he was treating dogs in the carpark, he claims to have treated a hundred cases. His was one of four practices in the town.

One hundred vectors arriving in Dover is more than enough to spread any dog-born virus right through the UK.

* It really doesn't matter*

It kind of does matter, as different diseases arise from different countries. Its a bit like saying animals smuggled from Africa are all likely to have mango worms, when that is a bit of a Gambian speciality. In fact I would go as far as saying as your comment is a form of prejudice, as you are assuming all Eastern European countries are the same.

If you think it's racist to think that it doesn't matter where unvaccinated, infected dogs come from, I'll take that on the chin. There are two Baltic countries where they don't have rabies, I still would want an unvaccinated dog from either of them because anyone bringing one in would be disregarding the law and that would lead me to have serious doubts about what other laws they were breaking.

When I move my dog between the UK and the Irish Republic, two countries currently clear of rabies, I still have to prove that they have been vaccinated against it. That's the law and following the law is one of the ways in which I prove I'm a responsible dog owner.

I love the amount of racism on this thread. Seems to be increasingly the UK thing.
The pup may have a Latvian passport simply because it was born there. I would assume and hope that the UK Border Control exercised the necessary steps to assure that the dog was brought into the country while adhering to all necessary regulations needed to bring a pet into the country.
Some of the people on the thread may not be aware of the fact that there are rather decent standards of vet care abroad. People do have cats and dogs, have them microchipped, neutered, vaccinated and checked annually. They even have passports to travel and a rabies vaccination is a must for them to travel.
I am not saying that there aren't attempts to cheat the system over there but most people are decent pet owners.
When it comes to puppy mills, I'd be looking at the UK as one of those countries where the trade is rampant and it's not exactly the Eastern Europeans feeding it.

What racism?

I know of pets being brought to the UK from Eastern Europe where there is rabies, with false details on the passports, their owners boasted about it.

Of course the majority of pets and owners are legit, but it only takes one.

ChardonnaysPrettySister

it is racism if you only hear ah, pet passport from Latvia and everybody goes, oh, you're fucked.
I'd be first trying to find out other details, is the pet registered in the country database if microchipped, check the vet (they even speak English) etc. The dog can be a scam or it can be a perfectly healthy and fit animal that will make someone a great company.

I think you are seeing things you want to see.

It wasn't just the provenance, it was the whole of the story, buying on the Internet, the many breeds advertised, the whole thing sounds dodgy.

* I know of pets being brought to the UK from Eastern Europe where there is rabies, with false details on the passports, their owners boasted about it.*

For the love of god, Eastern Europe is not one country. You get stupid pet owners everywhere, not just Eastern Europe. Latvia has been free of Rabies for at least 5 years, Latvia is not well known for forging passports...

I'm sure that most Eastern Europeans are decent people, who treat their animals well. I don't think that whoever bred the OP's dog or anyone who sticks 100 puppies on a transporter for up to a week, to increase their profits is decent or has the animals best intrests at heart.

If the OP's dog has been born in the UK, I'd still be just as suspicious that it hadn't been properly vaccinated, people who pass on health checks, usually pass on vaccine and worming too. The only added risk is rabies and while it's rare, it can be passed on to humans which is a pretty frightening prospect.

I don't think that coming from any of the countries in Eastern Europe makes you a devious fraudulent bastard but I don't think it excludes you from being one either. .

The ops dog is from Latvia, which doesn’t have rabies, so I don’t know why everyone keeps mumbling about the risk of rabies in Eastern Europe....

I don't think that coming from any of the countries in Eastern Europe makes you a devious fraudulent bastard but I don't think it excludes you from being one either. .

Yes and that I perfectly agree with. Notwithstanding the fact that "Eastern Europe" is a very broad term including many countries with completely different life, views and standards of living.

Well exactly, that’s why (being “Eastern European”) I can’t stand it when all of the countries are lumped together. And I’m from of the ones that is looked down on!

www.dogstrust.org.uk/press-materials/dt_puppy_smuggling_report_v12_web(1).pdf

Puppies are big money.

Not sure where you see people "mumble" Cider, I think it's pretty clearly said.

Latvia borders with Russia and Belarus, both of which have rabies. Foxes and bats carry rabies. Wild animals don't have much respect for borders. It's a legal requirement to have your pet vaccinated against rabies in Latvia because of this risk.

The situation is the UK is different.

Shame on you

(By the by, I don't think that having rabies makes the Russian or the Belarussian bad people.I wouldn't want to buy a badly bred dog from anywhere or anyone but I think it would be foolish to pretend that it's not more risky from some places than others.)

There hasn’t been any recorded cases of rabies in Latvia since 2012, so I don’t really know why people keep going on about the risk of rabies from “Eastern Europe” when the country the ops puppy came from has not had a case recorded of rabies for 5 years. Now my home country is a different matter! But please, calling a kettle a teapot does not make it so. Latvia simply is not a high risk country for rabies, I think the ops (and others posting about rabies) worries are misguided.

chardonnay I don’t see your link mentioning Latvia anywhere.

Did you actually read OP's posts, Cider?

She can't be sure of the provenance of that puppy. She had some suspicions about the passport.

And, no, the Defra link doesn't mention Latvia. It does talk about Eastern Europe.